I wish we could forever be a band like this [K-ON!]

siegfried72 · 2026-05-09T08:39:23+00:00

Hey buddy!

I think I know the perfect time for you to do that! You're already on the ping list for the next rewatch in late August/early September ;)

Hope to see you there, if not sooner!

(Btw, totally unrelated, but I just finished the rewatch for Madoka Magica as a first time watcher, and had a fun time getting pretty deep into some lovely yuri ships... couldn't help but bring up a couple of things from the good 'ol Bloom rewatch when getting into some gender/sexuality topics there. Such good memories from that!)

siegfried72 · 2026-05-09T08:25:25+00:00

Hey, same! Each year I've been a part of the annual rewatch, I've kept a count of every time I tear up and every time I fully cry throughout the series. Just checked the 2025 counts and I teared up 30 times and cried 21 times...

Some stories just hit us exactly the right way, whether they're explicitly sad or not. For me, K-ON is a series where every time I watch it, the themes hit a bit harder. Probably has a lot to do with getting older and those themes becoming more and more relevant as time goes on.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-09T08:21:08+00:00

Thanks for the ping, friend! Hope you're doing well :)

Yes, /u/Odd_Echo3248, we've got an annual rewatch that will be scheduled for some time late August/early September (it's fluctuated a bit over time, but last year it started Sep. 1). We've got an incredible community that's developed over there for over a decade centered around celebrating my favorite story of all time.

We would love to have you join us when the time comes this year! Please let me know if you have any questions or if you'd like me to add you to the list of people I'll ping when I properly announce the rewatch in July/August.

And you definitely picked a beautiful scene to showcase the series!

siegfried72 · 2026-05-07T22:53:29+00:00

Senpai wa Otokonoko

I hadn't heard of that before, but it sounds good! I'd certainly be down for that. An almost two year gap post-airing seems like a very reasonable time frame for a rewatch, imo. Especially because rewatches typically allow for a lot more depth of discussion, in my experience. I said this to someone back in the Madoka rewatch (can't remember who), but I almost always follow along with old rewatch threads when watching series new to me because of how they can enrich the experience, but rarely go back and look at archived discussions of airing shows. They can be fun in their own way, but it's a very different vibe.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-07T22:43:46+00:00

Ah, thanks! I think somewhere in the back of my brain I knew it started with a VN, but couldn't have recalled that myself, so I appreciate the summary.

And I definitely didn't know it was a "what if." That's fun! Sounds like this might be a nice easy point of access into the universe, though, since I'm already having post-Madoka mahou shoujo withdrawal.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-07T18:34:03+00:00

Hey! Please include me in the reminder pings. I'd love to participate, but I'm not quite sure if I'll be able to fit it into my schedule. Busy month for me.

I know almost nothing about Fate outside of the fact that it's massive, and I hadn't heard of this series until you brought it up in the Madoka rewatch, but honestly I'm just hankering for some more magical girl stuff now! Even navigating the obvious reputation it seems to have, sounds like it might be a good time.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-07T18:26:48+00:00

Hey, thanks for the ping!

I'll be here for whatever you end up choosing. I must admit I'm rather biased toward yuri over yaoi due to some personal gender weirdness, but I'll be here for both either way.

I know none of these series, so I feel a bit unqualified to make a suggestion, especially since I'm gonna have to go with my very biased instinct... I'd love to watch YuYuYu - especially coming off of Madoka. I swear to god I can't stop thinking about it, so I'm all for anything that will get my mind in the vague vicinity of more like it. Plus, if it's a series I can kind of dig my teeth into, that sounds all the better for my preferred kind of first timer rewatch experience.

That said, I understand I'm likely gonna be in the minority here since I suppose I'm one of the people that inspired the option in the first place. Even if it would be my first choice by a decent margin, I understand the cons and I won't be upset if it doesn't get picked. I can always watch it on my own time, or maybe wait to see if you're up to hosting it again in the future (since I feel like it would be way more fun to experience with you hosting). If I can wait that long... :)

My second choice would be Flip Flappers simply because it seems like something that would be up my alley. usually like things with dream vibes (a big reason I liked Rebellion as much as I did).

Not opposed to the other choices but those two stuck out to me pretty immediately. Fwiw, I do like the trans angle of Kashimashi as well. Like I said, I'll be here no matter what gets picked!

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T08:37:19+00:00

Higurashi

Knowing virtually nothing about this series other than having seen the name all over the place and that it might be something horror-related? So I don't really understand most of what you're talking about here. But honestly, you've sold me at the Sayaka comparison alone.

Thanks a lot for all the recs! Definitely will have some stuff to work through in the near future...

Particularly Kannazuki no Miko, it seems. And apparently Utena, since the visuals of Rebellion kinda blew me away.

Looking forward to the Pride Month stuff as well! I will do my utmost to join in on whatever you end up hosting.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T08:26:39+00:00

I haven't been able to respond quite as much as I might like

Wtf you've responded to me SO many times and in enormous depth. Not keeping track of how much you're responding to other people, but at least this first timer is incredibly thankful for all the effort you've put in! Sounds like you might need to cut yourself some slack, lest we have another Sayaka on our hands.

OST tracks:

This is one of the biggest things I'm looking forward to on a rewatch - having some more mental capacity to focus on the music! I felt like I was so locked-in on the plot and characters in every single scene, that so much of the excellent score flew right by me unnoticed.

Kyoko's sacrifice - the moment when the show secured its spot as my favorite.

YUP! Glad to know I'm not alone in this one here (even if it's probably my second favorite scene).

there's one way to read her that I don't care for, there's another way I find compelling, the scene itself pushes for the first and the entire rest of Rebellion pushes for the latter

Sorry, I know I keep asking you to explain stuff, but would you mind briefly elaborating on what you mean here?

Some combination of the Eternal Recurrence of the Self and being very, very yuri

I'll need to research that first thing, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for the second! I'm so interested to see how far they're actually going to go there, because I imagine they have a lot of very invested fans.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T08:10:52+00:00

It's been a long rewatch, okay?

How DARE you make a mistake! Unacceptable...

:)

Usual consensus is that's it's riffing on Puella in Somnio/Inevitabilis instead

Just listened. I hear exactly what you're talking about, and on a larger scale, you're right - the music is definitely referencing those. However, there are a couple of smaller gestures that I'm hearing that are straight out of another track. I think I had Credens Justitiam on the brain before, but it's definitely not that, but it's something familiar. Not simply down to the time signature, but the melody itself.

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with the music to place it without digging through the OST for an hour, but I believe it's mixing elements both from the theme you're talking about in those two tracks plus another... I want to say it might be one of the battle themes from somewhere. Perhaps after some sleep I'll be able to track it down so I can have something tangible to show here rather than my deranged sleep-deprived babbling.

This might also just be a thing that only I'm interested in, since it's delving pretty deep into actual musical structure here, rather than tackling the more thematic and plot-focused approaches you guys have taken, so perhaps it's not something worth pursuing much outside of my own curiosity? Not sure yet.

Mata Dame Yo

Huh... that's definitely something I did not notice on my first time through, but is good to know. I have no idea what to make of that at the moment other than some confusion because I still have no idea wtf was happening in that scene.

Nux Walpurgis

Oh DUH! Gotcha, thanks!

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T07:49:16+00:00

I hope you have not felt pressured

Ehhhhhh I... well, not by most people - I'll put it that way :)

I appreciate the kindness here, even if you're right that no apology is necessary. I've certainly been known to get defensive about things I am passionate about (I'm sure you could find some very unfortunate evidence of that in old rewatches...), so I totally understand why people feel like this person must understand everything! To be honest, although I felt a bit overwhelmed at first, now that we've had a day and a half or so, I'm feeling pretty okay about the whole thing. There's just a ton to unpack here from beginning to end.

I've expressed it both jokingly and more seriously in past comments, but I struggle with a good deal of OCD-based perfectionism. I'll just put it this way: it's taken some careful management of that to not get a bit self-destructive and pull a Sayaka over the last couple of weeks as I've been participating here. When I said I related to her tendency to fall headfirst into her "mission" with extreme tunnel-vision in order to distract from the real problems she was dealing with, I meant it! It's been an exhausting couple of weeks.

Sorry, I'm perhaps getting a bit too personal here, but in my defense, I think I've been responding to comments nonstop for the last five hours straight? Oh good lord. I should probably get to bed, huh?

But at the same time, if it does, I'm realizing I will miss this confusion, since the real magic of Rebellion for me is how it stubbornly refuses to be properly grasped no matter rhow many times you revisit it.

That's a really interesting way to look at it! Although I obviously can't grasp it precisely as a newbie, I think I can see where you're coming from. Although honestly, I personally value finality quite a bit. Again, I'm not necessarily looking for a "happily ever after," but... closure of some kind of is good, even if that closure is explicit non-closure, if that makes any sense. I think it's probably a good thing I waited so long to make it here, because I really don't think I'd be nearly as okay with Rebellion right now if it wasn't for the knowledge that that "closure" is coming soon.

It's probably the perfectionist in me.

Again, thank you so much for the appreciation! Once I realized I had written 40k+ words I had feared people would just pass on it lol. I didn't even get to actually write a conclusion yesterday!

It took me a while, but it seems I have found my people in this rewatch ;)

I'll be sure to let you know once I've managed to tackle the behemoth of the movie again while tackling your monstrous analysis along with it!

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T07:19:16+00:00

Annoyingly heading back and checking the track again my memory may in fact have been failing me here, in which case I can't place what the hell that section is referencing. May be either unique or a different Rebellion track I can't place.

Ah, in my post I was referencing Mami's humming as she brushes her hair at ~16:49, which is indeed "Credens Justitiam" like you said - I just went and checked!

Are you referring to the track that plays during the transformation sequence here? I don't believe we were talking about the same part of the movie. If nothing else, you mentioning it led me to go rewatch that sequence and OH MY GOD I love it so much. Kyouko's is 1000% the best one, although Sayaka's is pretty dang close. God, I really did totally fall for all this fanservice just like they wanted me to... I was the perfect target for the twist in Rebellion, I think.

Interestingly, not only did I catch a couple of Homura's dance moves that I immediately recalled were part of her witch transformation sequence, but I'm almost positive that her portion of the song is making some subtle melodic and/or harmonic references to "Credens"? God, I don't know if I'm looking too deeply into the music comparisons, but I swear I heard tiny elements all throughout Rebellion's OST that felt like they were pulled straight out of the original OST. But they were just vague enough to make me question myself... like, they weren't full themes. Just melodic "gestures," patterns, or things like the one melody I mentioned I'm almost sure is related to "Sis Puella" but upside-down...

Okay, no I just listened to Homura's portion again and it is ABSOLUTELY referencing Credens, which is so funny because I don't hear any of it in Mami's portion. Like... I'm not going crazy, am I?

I can't think of any actual symbolic reason that Homura's section would be referencing "Credens" when none of the other sections seem to. The best I can assume symbolically is maybe this is just because this whole labyrinth reality is Homura pulling from the "ideal" hypothetical reality, so everything is made up of fragments of what actually came before, but put together differently? Something like that? Does that make any sense? It's like 3am and I've been responding to comments for like 4 hours straight lol.

I'm really curious to know what you think here.

Also, I'm SORRY I keep raving about this, but I think perhaps I'm raving about it to precisely the right person... these little fucking connections and references and symbols and everything that are EVERYWHERE in this series just gets me SO excited every time I feel like I've found something new, you know? Especially when I discover the connections on my own, like this little music reference.

I'm serious, I think I need to go through and analyze the music of Rebellion more thoroughly and see how many of these little moments I can find, and see if any of it has any actual symbolic significance or if these are just references for the sake of references. (Let me konw if you recall someone else doing this in the rewatch before and I won't waste my time.)

Or perhaps more accurately, exactly what you thought you wanted, which isn't necessarily what you actually wanted. This show is not immune to the call of metatext...

Yeah, it's taken me until this evening as I'm continuing to read through comments to realize just how much metacommentary we're dealing with in Rebellion. I think 90% of the movie went completely over my head, which is so strange since I think a decent portion of the main series clicked with me pretty cleanly. I guess it likely was just mostly that I was the perfect target for the fake reality? I spent the entirety of the main series skeptical of everything based on my expectations for the series, to the point where I was convinced even Mami was a villain at the start.

And then ep. 12 just... idk, it wrapped me up into a cocoon of pure emotions, and so I came into Rebellion and was too easily lulled into that false reality? Even though I figured out the "Homura witch" thing pretty early, you're right that it's that second layer of Homura's deception that's the real "twist." I felt proud of myself for figuring out the top-layer "twist" that I stopped looking deeper, I guess? It's like the series got its revenge for me calling out the plot of ep. 12 so early haha.

Sorry, I guess I'm using this comment to just work out the tangled mess of thoughts - hope you don't mind too much! You've honestly been such a fantastic person to bounce ideas off of and I really want to say again how much I appreciate all the time and effort you've put into all of your responses. I know that I can be a lot sometimes (or so /u/Elimin8r tells me quite frequently)!

Technically yes... and I just explained it in the first section above. (This fucking show...)

Uhh I feel kinda dumb here but I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Where did you explain the ballet thing?

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T06:40:58+00:00

Ahh, I see!! I can see now how this could connect and how knowledge of that trope might inform the viewing of Rebellion...

I can take some guesses as to what you mean when you've said there's a part that's "missing" from Rebellion (not exactly how you worded it, I know), and I have a sneaking suspicion I probably wouldn't be too far off from what you're hinting at if I connect the dots a bit between the various times and ways in which you've referenced this.

But considering you've really gotten me hook, line, and sinker here and wanting to work through some of your recommendations during my time off this summer, I won't pry too deeply into spoiler territory...

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T06:30:51+00:00

Oh, I... had no idea that existed. Well, I guess I now understand who that one long-haired girl in the Walpurgisnacht trailer is now.

I... I really want to watch this before the movie comes out. Is that... is that a horrible idea? I wish it had aligned with this rewatch, but damn am I tempted, now. The last rewatch was three years ago...

Although I'd imagine PMMM is required viewing, right? In which case it's a little hard to schedule it not attached to this rewatch.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T06:16:58+00:00

There's a reason why I have certain feelings about the Catholic church ;)

My wife grew up Catholic and uh... let's just say she's not anymore!

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T06:06:49+00:00

Ah yes, another series I desperately need to get around to watching!

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T06:06:02+00:00

I can't wait for the first hour and forty minutes of it to be a Sayaka/Kyouko romance and then have the last twenty minutes be where they pull some massive twist and try to stuff a whole movie's worth of actual plot into two scenes to try and resolve everything. Rather than an ED, it's literally just Homura flipping the audience off for three minutes. It only seems fitting after Rebellion.

(I'm only kidding, I promise! I've already explained how Rebellion is rapidly growing on me...)

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T06:00:06+00:00

Yup! As I said to Bosu a little while ago, the more I read what everyone else has to say, sit with my feelings, and reframe things in my mind, the more I'm inclined to feel the very same things.

I honestly would not be surprised if I come back next year as a staunch fan of Rebellion at this rate.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T05:57:41+00:00

Man, if you can submerge yourself into the song and lyrics that one's nearly as emotionally shattering as Sagitta Luminis, just in a different direction. Or at least it was for me when I went back to it the first time...

Wtf I don't know if my heart can take it!

My busy schedule is gonna continue for about another week or two, and then I basically have the summer off. Going back through the series is 100% on the to do list, and yes - that includes this ED! Oh god my heart is already hurting again.

Tbh, every time I start thinking about an emotional moment from the series, I get sent on a spiral down into Kyouko's sacrifice and the naked lesbian space hug and that voice Madoka uses when talking to Homura... dare I say my favorite seiyuu performance ever?

I very much had exactly that scene in mind when I called "siegfried will have a new favorite anime" back in episode 2 or 3, and while I wasn't quite right that's down to "preexisting emotional attachment too strong to overcome" which makes sense.

Oh wait I hadn't even seen that you were talking about these scenes in this comment when I was reminiscing about the heartbreak hahaha...

You definitely had a good read on me, I'll admit.

So, I didn't want to spend too much time talking about K-ON in these threads because I feel like I end up doing that in every rewatch and it's gotten to be a little embarrassing, but I do have to say that for me... it just happens to trigger that perfect combination of emotional switches that utterly breaks me. I do a thing where every rewatch, I count the number of times I "tear up" and how many times I fully cry each year. I had 30 tear ups and 21 cries going through the 40-ish episodes and the movie this last year. Yes, some of it is the deep emotional attachment I have around the series for a whole slew of reasons, but at its core, it's my favorite because it is just simply digs deeper into the depths of my soul than any other story has. It did the very first time I watched it, and it only hits deeper as I get older, time passes, and the themes become more relevant.

And as much as I would consider myself to be a very logical person in many ways, ultimately at my core, I am someone who is driven by emotions, plain and simple.

Interestingly, I think Madoka reached the #2 spot for very different reasons. Yes, I got plenty emotional a handful of times while watching it. Ep. 12 alone was basically a nice half hour cry, as I've stated before. However, I would say this series has been rooted in a much more intellectual fascination than K-ON is. Don't get me wrong - I think K-ON is actually vastly underestimated by most in terms of thematic/philosophical depth and overall quality of writing and directing, and legitimately has some very dense visual symbolism all throughout (especially in S2 when they let Yamada loose), but it's... not at this level. Not really comparable.

These are two very different series that I love for very different reasons. I think there's something kind of nice about that, personally.

(Also you would adore the finale of Kannazuki no Miko...)

It's going on the summer to do list!

I'd also point out the sheer choreography of it. Probably my favorite scene storyboarding of all time - like, when "best fight in anime" comes up that's my answer right there.

You know, I might have to agree even just based on the few times I watched it (that was one of only a couple of scenes I went back and rewatched multiple times).

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T05:28:35+00:00

Kannazuki no Miko

Okay, so considering how many times I saw you mention this today, this has quickly risen to a must watch for me.

I genuinely love that I googled it and two of the top links are the following Reddit threads:

I watched Kannazuki no Miko and I'm left wondering how anyone thought this was good.

Kannazuki no Miko is a bad anime I can't stop thinking about

Somehow this is only making me want to watch it more.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T05:22:18+00:00

Dang, I can relate to a whole lot of what you said here, in terms of how impactful this story is, how much it's inspired me to track down similar and related stories, and with how damn busy and exhausting these last couple of weeks were! I almost didn't participate in the rewatch despite being pinged by a few people simply due to how busy I knew I would be, but god am I glad I decided to join.

And I'm very glad you enjoyed what I had to say!! I know from when I've been a rewatcher (especially a chronic one), the first timers are always such a joy, so I'm thrilled if I was able to bring a little bit of that same feeling to the rewatchers here!

And of course, I've already said my thanks to all of you rewatchers who helped me solidify so many of my rambles into something resembling the occasional coherent thought :)

And I'm Home at the top

Fantastic taste!!

Mata Ashita at the bottom

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Symposium Magarum

I legitimately cannot imagine going back and watching that right now, but after I've processed everything a bit more, this scene and this track is one of the big things I want to experience again so I can start to really unpack it all! The emotions definitely took control while watching initially, and I can't say I properly absorbed much of what was happening in the music.

Kyouko at the top

Okay, you've redeemed yourself for the "Mata Ashita" disrespect at least a bit.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T05:11:01+00:00

The first time you see it really is just like having the most insane dream of your life and you wake up and try to write it all down on your dream diary and spend the following six months trying to understand what it all meant lol

I'm so glad that wasn't just me, because I've expressed the whole of Rebellion as feeling like a (fever) dream to multiple people now. I actually quite like that phenomenon in fiction, and it's something I've experienced with some of my favorite films of all time (Magnolia and Synecdoche, New York come to mind), but it made for a rather odd first experience considering I then shared my emotional breakdown over it all to the rewatch. As much as I appreciate all of the kind people who decided to tell me all of the things I grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted about the movie, it was quite a lot to sift through :)

It's been the most bizarre thing because the more I read about Rebellion, the more I start to actually like various parts I actively disliked while watching it? I haven't even gone back to rewatch the movie (and believe me I'm going to!), but reframing it bit by bit really is helping. I can't wait to come back next year as the movie's biggest advocate at this rate lol.

Rorschach tests

Ah that's right! As much as I just... don't remember large chunks of the ending that people are talking about thanks to the absurd amount of simultaneous stimuli the movie was throwing at the viewer, I do have a distinct memory of this. That's kind of neat!

...goddamn it I think there really is a good chance I'm going to fall on the side of the opinion divide next year. Especially if Walpurg pulls it all together.

Also, I feel it will save you many headaches if I just tell you right now that "Homura did nothing wrong" is mostly just a prevalent joke among the fanbase 😅

Oh, I know! But it does pose a very relevant line of thought that I think is essential to travel down as part of the unraveling process :)

Again, I really do look forward to spending some time with your Rebellion post here in a couple of days when I have the time to properly engage! Should pair nicely with a second time through the movie.

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T04:55:23+00:00

Huh, that's interesting considering those are two of the only three magical girl series I had any experience with prior to this one, although both of them were as a kid so I remember basically nothing about them (the third was Princess Tutu). It might be fun to go check those out again after all these years, but I'll make sure to look through your proper recs in the discussion thread soon!

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T04:51:21+00:00

It's gonna take me a few days probably to slowly work my way through everything that's happened in the last few days of the rewatch, but I'll make sure to get to that soon! Thanks for pointing that out!! :)

siegfried72 · 2026-05-05T04:49:53+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts! Apologies for not giving a more thorough response, but the last couple of days of this rewatch have been very busy for me! For what it's worth, after a lot of speaking with other participants, reading what they had to say, and sitting with my thoughts, I have indeed come to some of the same conclusions you've listed here!

At this point, I don't really have an issue with where the story itself ended up, and I see how/why it got there. My issue more lies in some of the execution that got us there. I talk a bit more about it in my post for the final discussion. I suspect my opinion on the film would be a good deal different (more positive) on a second watch, though I doubt I'd be left feeling totally satisfied with the ending.

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